Soon after, MC Ren soon fell on hard times when DJ Train died in a house fire before the release of The Villain in Black (1996). The album sold relatively well for a brief period. Before leaving Ruthless Records, Ren released Ruthless for Life (1998) which proved a worthy comeback, briefly selling well. He appeared on the posse cut "Some L.A. Niggaz" from Dr. Dre's 2001 album, but only took part in the intro, speaking.